I'd Rather Gnaw My Arm Off than Buy Another Maxtor Hard Drive
Written: May 11 '05 (Updated Jul 17 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: don't ask me right now.
Cons: slow start-up, corrupted files from the beginning, loud, horrid warranty
The Bottom Line: How can I put this? NEVER BUY MAXTOR HARD DRIVES. NEVER BUY MAXTOR HARD DRIVES. NEVER BUY MAXTOR HARD DRIVES. Clear enough?
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| martytdx's Full Review: Seagate SATA Ultra Kit 120 GB SATA Hard Drive |
see update 5-24-05 at bottom
Remember the days when you got that 40MB hard drive and you were the MAN because you could save anything and everything that you could get your hands on? I do - and I laugh because I routinely work with files that large in PhotoShop. Still, I thought that my 60GB hard drive would last me until I got a second, back-up drive one day. Well, 25+GB of MP3 files later, and I realized that 'one day' would be a lot sooner than originally anticipated.
So, the wife and I went out to spend one of my Best Buy gift certificates and bought ourselves (read: ME) a new Seagate 120 Ultra ATA hard drive to use as my back-up drive. One small problem - I had a serial ATA (SATA) drive slot on the motherboard, meaning I couldn't use that drive (but making my wife very happy). So, back to Best Buy I went to find a SATA 120GB drive.
When I got there, I was disappointed to find that my only 2 choices were Western Digital and Maxtor, not the Seagate I went in for. I will always avoid Western Digital after multiple problems with previous drives, and I haven't had stunning success or seen good reviews on Maxtor drives, either. I really wanted a Seagate, knowing that they were more reliable. It was like going out for Ruth's Chris and having to choose between McDonalds and Burger King. Nevertheless, I needed to get some room and quick, so I picked up the Maxtor 120GB SATA drive.
[ • install - SO FAR, SO GOOD • ]
When I got back to my computer, I sat down immediately to get this drive running. Installation was simple - unscrew the mount for the drive for the secondary hard drive, install the drive, plug it in and start the power.
Once the power was on, Windows XP wouldn't recognize the drive right away. So I installed the included MaxBLAST 3 software to see if that helped. I should have known that it might be problematic when the software couldn't locate the drive either. I rebooted, re-ran the software and it seemed to work that time - the drive formatted with the NTSF file system and I was ready to put files onto it.
[ • how did IT WORK? • ]
My first impressions of the drive weren't particularly positive. It was louder than my primary drive (a Seagate 80GB), and noticably slower in pulling in data. Some of that could be attributed to it being the 'slave' drive, but it was a bit slower than I would have thought normal. It also seemed a lot louder than my primary - particularly during start-up, when the drive would seem to crackle as the disc got moving. Additionally, the drive was SLOW to start up - it regularly took over 5 seconds to start moving, and longer before I could actually access data on the drive.
[ • uh-oh - THE FIRST SIGNS OF TROUBLE • ]
Once I finished testing it, immediately started one of my major objectives - to consolidate my collection of CD-R from several years, including 5-8 duplicate copies of the same file in some cases. I copied them all (75+) onto the secondary hard drive in order to then transfer them over to a DVD-R. I saved them all and started to organize the files - and noticed that some of them were corrupted. I confirmed that they were all right on the original CDs/Zips, and resaved them, fixing most of them. My my radar was up.
Then I moved some of my data that I wanted to back up from my main drive to the secondary (Maxtor) drive to add to the files to be DVD-ized. Again, some of my files got corrupted along the way - I should have returned the drive then, but I got busy and the drive seemed to be okay after that.
[ • ding-dong YOUR DRIVE IS DEAD • ]
Then the real problems started getting worse. Images were corrupted, files disappeared, the drive would lock up and there was a rather disconcerting sound coming from it whenever it was working. I made the decision that it had to go back, and began burning files to DVDs. But sensing its impending doom, the drive decided to completely corrupt. According to Windows, the drive was completely empty and needed to be formatted to be used, and applications which had referenced that drive previously would lock up because they couldn't find the relevant data. Worse, I had over 5GB of data on the secondary drive that I hadn't burned yet - and it seemed to be lost for good. Highly aggravating.
In desperation, I tried everything I could think of to get my data back. My first choice was to use the CHKDSK function from DOS - which detailed 1,000s of corrupted and incomplete files, missing directories and disk errors, but wouldn't recognize the drive at all once Windows started. I loaded a startup MaxBlast disc to see if there was any utilities to check the disk - no luck, installation software was there, but no diagnostic or troubleshooting software. Using HELP was worse than useless - not only was there little to no information, but the "index" wasn't even in alphabetical order (the first entry was under "U"); worse, it was little more than a collection of glossary entries. So I went to the Maxtor site to see what I could find there. Despite the fact that my drive wasn't even listed on the site, they did have 2 software tools that I thought might help. I downloaded both but neither was any help. Maxtor support was of little more help than the software, although the rep was pretty sympathetic to my plight. He gave me some suggestions and then said that he always tells people to do a search for "data recovery software"¹. Always? Seems that they might have gotten this call before. He said that I should return the drive and get a new one - I plan on returning it, but I'm getting my Seagate. I gave one last attempt to solve my problem by googling it - to no avail, except to see that I was not alone.
[ • bad drive GOES BYE-BYE • ]
Well, my drive is busted with all of my data on it. I was hesitant to buy another Maxtor drive, and my fears have unfortunately been proven correct. Now, I know that drives fail all of the time - they are imperfect, which is why we back up data to start with. But this drive was less than 45 days old when it died and had problems from Day 1. Worse, Maxtor provides no tools and little support to try to fix problems with their drives when they occur. "Buy some data recovery software and take back the drive" seems a little weak to me. So, in the end all I got for my $109 was the back-up drive that ate all my data.
If I had a fear of cheap drives (like Maxtor) before, it's compounded now. My frustration at losing my BACKUP drive - and the data on it - less than 2 months after purchasing the drive was bad, but the fact that there were no tools to help the situation, nor was their 'support' very supportive made me write off Maxtor drives forever. If you need to get a SATA drive, stick with a brand that is reliable - Seagate - and save yourself the trouble of dealing with a cheap knock-off.
[• UPDATE! beware the WARRANTY •]
I tried to take this paperweight drive back today to Best Buy - and was told that they wouldn't accept it past 30 days, so I would need to contact Maxtor. Their response was that they would send me a replacement drive. I explained (probably less politely than I should have) that I didn't want another Maxtor drive, and that I would prefer a refund. Well, I'm S.O.L. - they won't do it, nor will they allow you to change drive types (say, to an external). So, since I got a Seagate to replace this POS, now I'll have a hard drive that I can't use, don't want and they'll still have my money - the asshats.
[ • tech SPECS • ]
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus
Size » 120 GB
Type » Serial ATA (SATA)
Speed » 7200 RPM
Warranty » 1 year limited parts
[ • additional NOTES • ]
¹ I was lucky enough to find a piece of software which saved my day. R-Studio NTFS allowed me to not only see the damaged drive (even though Windows couldn't), but was able to recover nearly all of my files. At $49, it was far cheaper than many of the alternatives but worked very well for me. As I said, I've recovered the vast majority of my data, making this experience a bit easier to stomach, although I will still never buy another Maxtor drive.
[• computer HARDWARE REVIEWS •]
Sony DRU-710A DVD Burner »
So far, I love this drive. Quick, versatile and easy to install. The OEM Nero software leaves a little to desire, though.
HP Deskjet 5650 »
A great printer capable of doing exquisite prints from digital images.
Wacom Intuos 2 Digital Tablet »
A great printer capable of doing exquisite prints from digital images.
Recommended:
No
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martytdx
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Member: Marty
Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 481
Trusted by: 180 members
About Me:
Doing what I can to try new places, restaurants, books and beers.
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